A privately-owned bull semen collection service has been launched in the west. Brendan Regan, an AI and bull fertility testing technician and breeder of the well-known Angus bull, Coney Island Legend, has undertaken the venture to provide a ‘much needed service to bull breeders’.

Coney Island Genetics was started by Brendan earlier this year and in the past few weeks it has been licenced for both on and off-farm semen collection.

Previously, Brendan ran a bull fertility testing business throughout Ireland. Recently, he has reduced down the fertility testing service to a more localised business but will also continue to serve existing clients.

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The semen collection service can be availed of in two ways. Firstly, a bull can go through the required testing procedures at the bull stud, based outside Gortghanny, Castlerea, Co Roscommon, where it will be quarantined, tested and jumped.

Alternatively, a bull can go through the relevant testing and quarantine period on the owner’s own farm, can be jumped there and the semen collected. After collection, the semen will then be taken back to the laboratory outside Castlerea for processing and freezing.

Coney Island Genetics is currently the only EU and Department of Agriculture approved semen collection company to provide an on-farm semen collection option.

Semen that is collected on farm is not saleable and can only be used on that herd. Semen which has been collected from bulls that have gone through the required testing and quarantine procedures, and are jumped at the stud, is saleable.

Local veterinarian, John Finnegan, based in Cloverhill in Roscommon and Williamstown in Galway, is the vet charged with overseeing the standards, testing, hygiene, welfare and biosecurity of the stud.

He will also oversee the signing out of semen from the lab.

The service has been expanded in the past few weeks to include semen distribution. If a bull owner has the bull’s semen collected in the stud and wishes to have the semen marketed, this option is now available.

Semenstore.ie, which is one of the few Irish bovine semen companies providing an online facility for purchasing semen, will market the semen on their website. If demand for the semen is high enough, there is also the possibility to market it in the UK.

Dovea Genetics will distribute the semen throughout Ireland on behalf of semenstore.ie.

One recent high profile on-farm semen collection was from the Simmental bull Corraheen Drifter, which was recently sold by David Wall. The ability to collect some semen from the bull prior to sale has resulted in the retention of the bull’s bloodline in the country, albeit within Wall’s herd.